How much did you read in 2009?

It’s rather a lot when the words are added

I originally started writing this paragraph to introduce my little book awards ceremony, The Tarts 2009, with a tally of the modest 75 books I’ve read this year (14 from Frankston Library reviewed, 42 in the ‘others 2009’ listing in the blog’s sidebar and the piles of books around the house I’ve read but haven’t done anything with yet). But the idea grew … just how much did I read this year?

A million words a month.

Look. See!

All estimates are conservative and I excluded research and reading in permanent paid employment – this is my reading by choice total.

I can’t upload the spreadsheet here (despite trying only four different ways) so you can have a quick stab at it yourself. Have a go anyway using your own estimates; no one will think you’re insane, promise.

The most humbling aspect of the total is that when I think about all my gaps in the ‘top 100’ lists and books to read before you leave the planet, all the classics I’ve never picked up and all the books written in languages other than English that haven’t been translated for my reading pleasure, the sum of my endeavours is a speck of dust on a back shelf of the world’s combined libraries.

How many words have you read this year?

Oh yeah, I wrote more than 80,000 words, too.

Booky Christmas to me, booky Christmas to me

The mail order catalogue got me.

all i want for christmas is some time off to read them

Top to bottom:
Roberto Bolano~ 2666. I seem to have a new obsession with Chilean authors, especially Chilean authors who die before finishing the last part of a five-book opus and whose benefactors insist on publishing the 900 pages as one doorstop. I’m sure it’s bad luck to mess with the wishes of the deceased but I hope the potentially messy karma doesn’t extend to those who read the book. Violence, murder, dark humour, a world gone wrong — what more could a reader want?

Edited by Robyn Davidson ~ The Best Australian Essays 2009. Robyn Davidson is one of my favourite writers and the annual compilation is one of my yearly must-buys. But you know what? From the stories I’ve dipped into so far between appointments and the dreaded day job, I think she’s played her editorial hand a little conservatively. Then again, in the editor’s note Robyn has justified her selections and why experience was mainly chosen over exuberance; I have the luxury of being critical because I didn’t have to read and decide which of the hundreds of small treasures to keep or cull.

Kim Echlin ~ The Disappeared. I knew nothing of Kim Echlin until reading a sparkling review in the evil, influential mail order catalogue. Young love, separation, an arduous search and the impact of Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia in achingly beautiful prose (apparently). I’m looking forward to sitting for a few hours with a dog or two on my lap and a box of tissues by my side.

Patrick Gale ~ The Whole Day Through. The truth about Patrick Gale is that I adore his writing so much that I don’t know what the book is about. I just saw and ordered it.

Aravind Adiga ~ Between the Assassinations. The follow-up to The White Tiger is a collection of intertwined short stories set in the fictional town of Kittur. No doubt Adiga will continue his take-no-prisoners approach to mid-1980s India between the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and her son, Rajiv.

Kate Grenville ~ The Lieutenant and The Secret River. The two-volume set at a crazily-low price is the reason for the order. Both books explore the lives of Englishmen sent to Australia in its early decades of white settlement, with The Lieutenant based on the real-life notebooks of William Dawes. I know that Kate has written many shoddy sentences, because she has said so in her book on writing, but I don’t think she’s ever allowed anything less than stellar writing to hit the the printing press.

Booky Christmas! I have a few ‘B’ book reviews to write but the next entry will be the The Tart Awards 2009.